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Friday, May 4, 2012

Already Slammed Enough... Shortened My Brewday

As I reflected on my schedule, and the two beers I was
getting ready to brew, it dawned on me, I don’t have to make this so much work. I was slated for 2 separate brews, 2 mashes,
2 boils. 1 American Wheat with all Amarillo - a Gumballhead
clone with Wheat Malt, Pale Malt, and CaraVienne. The other, a Belgian Wit with Flaked Wheat, Flaked
Oats, and Pils, which would call for a 90 minute boil. I have been slammed enough already that I
didn’t need a 9+ hour brew day. So I
decided to make a switch.

I swapped the
Wheat Malt for Flaked Wheat, which works since Gumballhead uses Red Wheat
(Flaked) not White (Malt). I also
swapped the Pils for Pale Malt since the flavor isn’t going to shift too far - if
it was nearly 90% Pale opposed to Pils it would show, but at less than 50% it
won’t matter too much. This dropped the
boil time for the Wit to less than 90.
It also allowed me to combine the base malts and do a large single mash
and run it all off into one giant kettle.
After mashing for 60 minutes, I will run it off into 1 kettle, stir,
test my gravity, then split, leaving slightly more in the American Wheat than
the Wit to account for higher hop losses.
I also adjusted each recipe for a 45 minute boil to shorten the day by
another ½ hour. I will steep the
Caravienne in the wort for Gumballhead, and I will toss the Oats into the boil
for the last 10 minutes on the Wit (contributing the mouthfeel as well as
starches that will help keep the haze around), a tip I picked up from Michael Tonsmeire, that he got from a The Alchemist.
Should make for a much shorter, easier brewday, and two great beers.